Pardes Faculty Traveling

Reuven Margrett Dvar Torah

The pedagogical phrase that I have
heard the most is, “Just because you taught it, does not mean that
students have learned it.”. I too have said it too others, and yes I
too have experienced it in the classroom as well as in my life.

What makes something have an affect on
you? I have heard many shiurim, been to many classes, and had many
hours of being “taught”. Yet what makes me an effective learner
in order for the learning to have an impact on me?

To put it another way. If Shavuot is
zman matan torateinu, the time our Torah was given, what is it
that turns 'the Torah', into 'our Torah'?

It says in Yeshayahu 55:1, “Ho! All
who thirst, go to the water... “ which is very good advice for
both now, as well as in a future time when it tells us that there
will be water to quench our thirst. We also know that our tradition
tells us that ein mayim ela torah (there is no water except
for Torah). This means that the real source of life is Torah. The
parallel to water and Torah is made more profound by the Evianwebsite which says that 'Water is life' (did you know that each
day, an average adult naturally loses 2.5 to 3 liters of water under
normal conditions?), which we would translate to 'Torah is life'.

There
is an interesting halacha when it comes to water. If one is thirsty
for water then you would make a blessing beforehand. If however you
are not thirsty and drink some water, lets say with a few Advils
after a hard day in the class, then you would not make a bracha. If
the next day you were to take Advil but washed them down with a Coke
(or something stronger if it was a really hard day) then you would
make a bracha on the drink.

Why
is it that for water we differentiate between saying and not
saying a bracha? The simple answer is that when we are thirsty and
enjoying the water we make the bracha. Yet a more profound teaching
(which I heard from Rabbi Brog in Cleveland, in the name of his
father-in-law) is that it is only
when you are thirsty do you enjoy water, and so to it is only
when you are thirsty [for Torah] are you able to absorb the Torah.

This
is part of Yeshayahu's message – the Torah will only quench your
thirst if you have a desire to learn it. Just as water is considered
essential to life, and we can only survive for a few days without it,
so to, a
life without Torah takes away our essential life force.

Our work of engaging young people
requires students to see that the texts and teachings of Judaism are
the essential life-giving 'water' of the Jewish people. Do the
students see this 'thirst' in their teachers?

We perhaps may now better understand
the custom of staying up all night learning Torah on Shavuot. How
could we possibly fall asleep when there is essential life giving
Torah to be learned. On all other nights we sleep to rest our bodies,
but on the night of the giving of Torah we must crave the Torah like
one who has been without water. We must feel that we are not learning
'the Torah', but are learning 'our Torah'. That Torah
is essential to our lives.

I hope I am able to feel this kind of
thirst, both on Shavuot and the rest of the year, and that we as
educators are successful is generating this thirst in our students.
They are not there to hear our teachings and pass a test, but hopefully, they will be thirsty to know more, thirsty to engage in their tradition, and
thirsty to learn Torah.